Back to the Future 1 (Harvey Comics)
* 'Back to the Future 1' was the first issue in the Back to the Future comic series by Harvey Comics. It contained the story "The Gang's All Here". Publisher's Summary The Adventure Has Only Begun! The Time: 1927. The Place: Chicago. The Problem. How do we get out of here? ''Back to the Future™, Back to the Future Part II™ and Back to the Future Part III™ were mere appetizers — or dare we say, appeTEASERS — to one of the greatest adventures of recent times. Actually, if you think about it, it's of recent times, of long gone past times, and of future times. Now Doc Brown, Marty McFly, Clara, Jules, Verne, Einstein and Biff Tannen (and all those other terrible Tannens) have moved their breathtaking, ever changing story to these pages where you can share their incredible exploits as never before. This issue, they journey back to the crime and corruption of Chicago in the 1920s! Plot Marty McFly sums up the events that had happened to him so far. "Doc" Emmett Brown invented a time machine out of a DeLorean in 1985. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but by 1991, it is difficult to purchase repair parts, as the company had folded by that point. The coordinates Doc input into the time circuits of the DeLorean sent Marty back to 1955, where he met his parents, George McFly, and Lorraine Baines McFly, when they were still in high school. Marty recommends avoiding this if possible, as everyone would rather not know what their parents were really like as teenagers. Marty taught his father how to not be such a wimp, as he stood up to Biff Tannen for the first time in his life, and Marty changed his own future. Marty and Doc then went forward to 2015 and back to 1885, where Doc fell in love with and married Clara Clayton. Doc and Clara have two sons, Jules and Verne, who are living in Hill Valley in 1991. Clara commutes between the two time periods, as she was born in the 1850s. Marty is attending Hill Valley College and trying to put together a rock band. He still takes trips through time with Doc whenever he gets the chance, but doesn't think too hard about time travel, as doing so gives him a headache. In 1991, Marty played a trick on Doc's dog Einstein with his new sound effects key ring. He hit the button to make cat sounds, and Einstein chased him up a tree. He tried to show him that it wasn't a real cat, by pushing the button to make gunfire sounds, but Einstein continued jumping up and trying to attack him. Jules and Verne arrived, and calmed down Einstein. Marty asked them if they could fetch a ladder to get him down before the branch he is sitting on breaks. Jules pulls an invention out of his backpack, an electric perpetual portable trampoline that his father made to ensure that Jules had sufficient exercise. While Marty is bouncing on the trampoline, trying to get off, Doc walks by while Jules and Verne try to hide the fact that Einstein has been misbehaving. Verne accidentally comes right out with it, while Doc pretends not to hear. However, once Clara lets everyone know that dinner is ready and Doc turns off the trampoline, he checks Einstein to see if he can determine if something is wrong with him. Despite Einstein's whining, Doc's quick check of Einstein's eyes hadn't come up with anything wrong. After dinner, Marty begins to take the dishes out to the kitchen. Doc tells him to leave the dishes, as he turns on his latest invention, the automatic housecleaner. After Einstein attacks Doc's invention, Clara tells Doc that he needs to punish him for misbehaving. Doc, however, thinks that something must be wrong, as Einstein is behaving unusually. He checks Einstein's nose, and is alarmed when he discovers that it is warm. Doc uses an ophthalmoscope to check Einstein's eyes, finding lesions on both cornea. He consults a medical textbook and discovers that he has a rare eye disease. He sits Marty down on a machine that is a vision simulator. He shows Marty the difference between normal vision, and Einstein's impaired vision. When Marty says that the second image makes everything look like cats, Doc quips that Einstein suffers from cat-aracts. He consults the medical textbook, and learns that the cure is a byproduct of fermenting juniper berries. Doc quickly sets up a machine to work as an alcohol distillery, but the machine explodes as, in Doc's haste to improvise the machine, he put the relief valve on backwards. When Clara suggests going to the time of prohibition, Marty asks her how she could know about it, as she wasn't born yet. She quips that she has been reading ahead in her history books. Marty grabs juniper berries from Clara's pantry, and Doc leaves with Marty in the DeLorean, informing Jules and Verne that they must stay behind as the time period to which they are travelling is too dangerous for children. Using the spatial displacement enabled time circuit control pad, Doc sets the destination for the south side of Chicago, Illinois on January 18, 1927. Doc parks the DeLorean perpendicularly in an alley, and uses a switch to convert the DeLorean into a suitcase. Marty struggles to pick the suitcase up, and Doc tells him it weighs 2,014 pounds. A Benedict mob gunsel fires a tommy gun down the alley at a rival gunsel, with Marty and Doc caught in the middle. Doc tells Marty to let him do all the talking, as the 1920s are very different from their time period. Marty ignores Doc's advice and taps a man on the shoulder, asking him where he can get a drink. The man, turns around, revealing himself to be a police officer. Doc tries to explain, however the officer finds Marty's key ring in his pocket. He pushes the button that makes a raspberry noise, and the police officer locks Marty up in prison, thinking that he was insulting him. A man in the cell with him calls Marty a butthead, and he mistakes him for Biff. It turns out he is the gangster "Mugsy" Tannen. Mugsy mistakes Marty for "Bathtub Jim" McFly, thinking that he got a haircut and changed his clothes in an effort to run away from his boss, Arnie "Eggs" Benedict. At the police station, Doc accidentally tries to pay Marty's bail with coins from 1985. The desk sergeant states that the coins are unlike anything he has ever seen, as they have someone on the front of them that looks like Governor Roosevelt from New York. He then arrests Doc on the charge of counterfeiting currency. A large man named "Battleship" Potempkin is about to beat Marty, when Doc steps in and tells him that they have him mistaken for someone else. He says that Marty is "Bathtub Jim" McFly's cousin, "Zipper" McFly, the head of one of the biggest organized crime families on the east coast. Mugsy orders "Battleship" Potempkin to release Marty, as he doesn't want trouble with another mob. Doc tells Mugsy that when his boss comes to bail them out, to have him bail himself and Marty out as well. "Eggs" Benedict tells Marty and Doc that he's heard they are heavy hitters, and tells them to meet him that night at his speakeasy. Doc agrees to go, as he needs "Bathtub Jim" McFly's help as brew master to make the serum for Einstein. At the speakeasy, Eggs Benedict recognizes the name Dr. Brown, to Marty's astonishment. Doc tells him that he doesn't brew celery tonic anymore, saying that he now brews hooch. Due to his familiarity with Doc, he offers Marty and Doc a cut of his operation in exchange for their protection against a local mob. They tell him that they'll consider it if they can see the operation, specifically the distillery. While Doc is inspecting the distillery, Marty speaks with Jim McFly. He tells Marty that he doesn't want to be a brew master, and would rather be a pharmacist. Mugsy says that he can't leave until he brews his invention, a lite gin with half the calories, but all of the flavor of regular gin. Marty states that it's an interesting idea, if a little ahead of its time. Back at the speakeasy, Marty dumps his cup, while Doc drinks his, causing him to pass out. A rival gangster comes in, shooting up the place. No one is hurt, but Eggs and Mugsy are shaken. Mugsy tells Jim McFly that he has changed the deal, and he is now part of the Benedict mob for life. That night, in a hotel room, Doc wakes up in bed. Marty tells him that he has been out for a few hours, when there is a knock at the door. Jim McFly is there, telling Marty that he needs his help. He wants Marty to talk to Eggs Benedict, to convince him to let Jim out of the mob. Marty tells him that he has a plan on how to do that, by scaring Benedict with his key ring. At the distillery, Doc and Jim use the juniper berries to make the serum for Einstein. Eggs and Mugsy show up, telling them that no one on the east coast had ever heard of Zipper McFly. Marty pushes a button on the keyring, making a bomb sound, which confuses the mobsters, who wonder if it is an air raid. He hits the button for the siren sound, and Eggs thinks it is a police raid. Marty uses the pipes to disguise his voice, and pretends to be the police. Using the button to make a gunfire sound, Marty starts imitating a shootout. After several minutes of this, he pretends that the police are retreating, claiming that the McFly gang is too tough. Marty enters the distillery, and tells Eggs and Mugsy that he is heading back east, as it is obvious that they don't want his protection. He tells them to let Jim out of the gang, or else the McFlys will be back to make a few omelettes. After he leaves, Eggs tells Battleship to teach Mugsy a lesson for giving him false information. Marty and Doc return to 1991, and feed Einstein the serum. The serum acts quickly, and Einstein is soon back to his old self. Dramatis Personae Individuals *1920s Chicago police officer *1920s Chicago desk sergeant *"Bathtub Jim" McFly *"Battleship" Potempkin *Arnie "Eggs" Benedict *Emmett Brown *Clara Clayton Brown *Jules Brown *Verne Brown *Benedict mob gunsel *Rival gunsel *Rival gangster *"Natty" Nelson Dewey *Einstein *Big Bob Gale *Little Caesar *Marty McFly, with alias "Zipper McFly" *Frank Nitty *Franklin D. Roosevelt *Mugsy Tannen *"Robbin" Robert Zemeckis Creatures *Dog *Cat Locations *Chicago, Illinois **Speakeasy/Gin joint Dates *1991 *January 18, 1927 Organizations and titles *Dr. Brown's Technology and weapons *Acme pressure gauge *Automatic housecleaner *vision simulator *Spatial displacement equipped compact DeLorean time machine with suitcase conversion *Electric perpetual portable trampoline *Tommy gun *Giant boxing glove launcher *Mr. Gin *Space-time coordinates Slang and phrases *Butthead *Erroneous enthalpy! *Gab *Giving a raspberry *Great Scott! *Gunsel *Hooch *Parallel parking *Perpendicular parking Miscellaneous *Cat-aracts *Celery tonic *Chicago News *Distillery *Gin and "Lite Gin" *Juniper berry *''Lurid Crime Stories'' *Prohibition Category: Comic stories